The Black Dragon
by Laughing Hyena
Summary: Gene finds a surprise waiting for him at Fred's HQ. It happens to be the old Starwind Enterprises crew, but there are even more surprises awaiting and they don't seem to be on the bright side for Gene.


Outlaw Star, Angel Links, and Future-Retro Hero Story belong to Morning Star Studios, Shusheia, and Bandai. The characters do not belong to me, they happen to be Takehiko Itoh's. But I do wish they were real.  
  
  
  
The Black Dragon  
  
Prologue:  
  
It all started with a clash, the buttons blinked and the motor roared like a lion. The Jackal was not much of a great pirate ship, but still was something to wonder about as one stared at the controls and felt how old it was. However, not all was well going on in the ship. News of the fall of Lord Hanazko was not a very good thing to the Kei pirates to discuss about, but also the captain of the Jackal had been replaced recently.  
  
The captain had to go along with the other pirates called in for a meeting by the Tendo King. The subject in matter of the meeting was not all too important to the crew of the Jackal. They were more upset with their new captain, a fool if there ever was one. David Williams was his name, he was a recent recruit who wanted nothing more than his share of glory and was willing to do anything for it. Also there were a few inexperienced Tao priests for their mission they had been employed with. A simple task most of the them had thought, if only they had knew it was not so.  
  
"Can't this machine hurry up?! Once this is done we will praised and reap great rewards...." But before David could go on, he was shoved abit by the head Tao priest, Long.  
  
"This will take time young one, we have our best hackers on the job. Soon we will have most of the information of the Space Force's Database and hopefully find out with what happen to Lord Hanazko. You do realize that we can be unsuccessful and wield nothing form the database. The Tendo King will be most displeased with us."  
  
"Blah, this is a piece of cake, as soon as we get everything downloaded we can fly this baby back to headquarters.", David sneered.  
  
"I see that you do not heed my words."  
  
Then a shout ringed out by one of the pirates.  
  
"We've got it!"  
  
"It's about time, now let's hurry before the Space Forces figure out about this." Williams was excited, "And I will soon raise in the ranks of the Kei pirates!"  
  
"And what path do you want us to take? O, dear captain." Long suggested.  
  
"Anywhere that will take us back the quickest way possible." he snorted back.  
  
Soon the crew felt something was wrong in the air, but they soon quickly dismissed it.  
  
"What the heck is that?!" Williams shouted out while pointing to panels of the ship.  
  
There was a vaguely large black shape in the dark vastness of space. Two front blood red demon like eyes blinked along with a hundred yellow ones side by side. It was some sort of ghost ship, the crew feared, come to take them to their maker. It was a black dog of space, they didn't know if it was another pirate, an Outlaw or Space forces space ship.  
  
"Turn the ship now! Hurry up! I don't want to know what the heck the thing is!"  
  
But as soon as the Jackal tried to run away, the black ship crashed into it causing all the lights to go out.  
  
"Somebody go and turn on the extra generators on!", David screamed.  
  
They waited as the rest of the crew went onward to fix this mess they now found themselves in.  
  
"Of all the things to happen and we get attacked by an unknown ship. The last thing we need is if anybody of that ship comes in. If they do come, we will squash them like bugs." Williams said.  
  
"Long, you and the others find out what's taking them so much time. They should have turned the lights back on by now."  
  
They soon left only leaving the new captain alone to himself. Time soon felt like endless road spanning to who knew where. Williams didn't know what to do, they didn't report back, none of them did. He soon felt fear creeping around in his psyche. As he waited, numerous thoughts popped in his mind to what had happened to the crew, none of them pleasant. He soon grew tired of waiting, and followed the paths his crewmates had taken. He found Long's group and what oddly smelled like Tao magic, but not quite. They lay on the ground hideously shriveled like grapes, as if they had been sucked dry of manna. Long and his group looked like they didn't stand a chance to what ever had attacked them. Williams found himself sweating, surely the crew that went to turn on the generators may have met the same fate. Whatever it was, he didn't want to meet up with it. If he made out of this alive, he could tell the more experienced Kei pirates to take this monster out. He ran back to the control room making sure that nothing was following him. As soon as he got back the lights blinked back on. He felt hope like he never did before, it may of mean the others were still alive.  
  
"Hahaha, they must have taken it out. Nothing can withstand the Kei pirates. We will always destroy those who can get in our way, our Empire is everlasting...."  
  
"You really think so?", a new dark gruff voice answered.  
  
Before Williams could ever act, he was grabbed by the throat.  
  
"What are you?" he struggled to voice out.  
  
"Death.", was the cold hearted reply.  
  
And before Williams could ever scream out, his neck was easily snapped in two. The stranger picked up the disk that had fallen to the floor which carried information form the Space Forces.  
  
"It's almost time red-haired man, it's almost time."  
  
He walked back looking at the carnage he had caused and made a malicious predatory smile that would outdo even the big bad wolf.  
  
  
  
  
  
Hyena: Yeah, it might take awhile when I come up with the first and second chapter, guys. I already have things planned out (even the ending!), it's just I get a little nervous writing fiction. I'm fine with information and chatting, though. Also there will be some Thousand Arms references (yet another one of Itoh's works) later on towards Suzuka. In fact there's a section for Thousand Arms down in the video game fic place, if you want to look. Wished there was something for KO Century Beast and Ryu Knight, I would love to write short stories for them. If I ever get this long story done, I'm going to work on another long story for Thousand Arms. 


End file.
